TO TREAD OBSIDIAN SHORES — Snippet 15

/ Jason Cordova
Coming January 2026 from Baen Books

(Welcome to the Bronze, Tavi!)

Mitzi blushed and ducked her head a few times apologetically, an almost instinctive movement, before looking at Tavi.

“Thanks again for all your help, Legionnaire,” she whispered. She shooed him out of the common room, and he abruptly found himself in the corridor. A quick smile from tthe young assistant and the hatch was shut, leaving him standing with his duffel bag over his shoulder and feeling rather stupid. He could hear her voice inside, feigning cheerfulness. “Coming, sir. I have it right here, Professor!”

Tavi turned and started walking down the corridor back the way he’d come. He had only a slight idea where he was going but figured eventually someone would steer him in the right direction. As much as a rivalry existed between the Navy and the Legion, it wasn’t as bad as both sides made it out to be. A few minutes later, a helpful petty officer (“Not a sir, Private, and for the love of God don’t salute me”) directed him along the proper way and he found himself in legionnaire country.

From there it was smooth sailing. Tavi found the Bronze Legion’s XO—or more accurately, the lieutenant found him. After a brief introduction to the 13th Legion and an “attaboy” for making nice with the strange civilian group from the Bronze’s Commanding Officer, Captain Oren Truitt—a man whose stark resemblance to Captain Rhys had floored Tavi into silence almost immediately—he was turned over to Sergeant Emmett Ord and officially reported to Bravo Company, 4th Squad.

As he trailed the sergeant down the narrow, metallic hall which would be his home for the foreseeable future, he finally was able to exhale everything he’d been holding in since setting foot on the transport shuttle. He’d done it. His official term of service had begun. He was officially a legionnaire.

“I know they gave you the rundown on how the Legion works in Basic, and again at ACS,” Ord was saying, bringing Tavi’s attention back to the here and now. His eyes took in the surroundings, as well as the various deck and levels marked along the walls so he wouldn’t get lost again. He’d been warned that there was a little bit of “hazing” he’d be subjected to, but nothing cruel. At least, that was what Sergeant Buckholz had told him. Ord stopped and looked down at him. One thing Tavi was quickly realizing was that, by Legion standards, he was small. Very small. The sergeant continued.

“We here in the Bronze are different. Most legions take months to stand up and deploy. Since it’s just the Thirteenth and our escorts, we can deploy anywhere needed within forty-eight hours. No other legion can do that. But because we’re always on standby and rapid deployment, we get a different berthing setup. Instead of barracks, you are assigned to a pod with your fire team, three pods to a squad.

“There’s a shared common area in the middle of a pod, two latrines per pod. Work out the shower rotation with your fire team. You will have a personal sleeping area that will be DNA coded to you. We still do inspections like in Basic, but that’s mostly to make sure you don’t bring sailors into your bunk. If you do, we will find out about it, and it will not be pretty. You get me, Private?”

“Yes, Sergeant!” Tavi responded automatically, his head swimming.

“I don’t care if you prefer boys or girls, Private. No. Sailors. In. Your. Berthing. Space. Are we clear?”

“Crystal, Sergeant.”

“Don’t want Navy down here screwing things up . . .” Ord muttered and shook his head. “The XO and Master Sergeant Jun decided you needed a battle buddy from a world similar to yours, to avoid unwanted cultural shock. I suggested someone else, but Top said Jabber was the best fit for you. Plus, he was available and his fire team had a slot open anyway . . . those bastards.”

“Jabber?”

“Drop name,” Ord explained. “Corporal Vindahar Jabbalogoeczeski. Once you make your first successful drop without pissing yourself, you’ll get your callsign, your drop name. Mine’s Ordo, because originality is not key to the Legion’s mission.”

“Jabber, Sergeant?”

“You try calling out his name in a firefight. Plus, he won’t shut up.” Ord sighed. “Ever. Like, fucking ever. You get to call him ‘corporal’ until told otherwise. Gird your loins and put that Distinguished Honor Graduate badass mental armor on, because we’re going to be throwing a lot of shit your way in the coming days and weeks. You’ll absorb it and make it through your ten, or you won’t, and die messily somewhere, hopefully without killing a fellow legionnaire along the way. And we’re here.”

Tavi looked at the markings on the wall and committed them to memory. Relying on others to simply show him the way all the time was a recipe for disaster. If he learned anything from surviving in Overdark, it was self-reliance. The Legion was almost as tough, and while they’d taught him to trust his teammates, they expected every legionnaire to be self-sufficient as well.

“Press your thumb on Pod E’s pad there, then get your gear stored and your personal effects squared away,” Sergeant Ord said, pointing at one of the small doors in the pod. Tavi did as ordered and the door unlocked immediately. He pushed it open and peered inside. There was a thin mattress with crash webbing, two blankets, a pillow, and a cabinet squeezed into the tiny space. There was just enough room for him to enter, turn around, and get dressed without bumping into anything. It was bigger than anything he’d ever had before in his life. Ord continued. “This is your space, Private. Keep it squared away. Jabber is a slob, and I better not hear we picked up another one.”

“No, Sergeant.” Tavi privately swore right then and there that his berthing space would be the cleanest in the Legion, perhaps the cleanest in the history of mankind as a whole. “No slobs.”

“Okay.” Sergeant Ord nodded. “We’ve got a quick pre-jump introduction with the squad for you in ten. Get organized and meet me out in the pod.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Sergeant Ord closed the small door. Tavi set his duffel bag on the thin mattress and gave the bed a push. It was secured to the floor and wall, which meant it wouldn’t move during transit when the ship jumped through space and into a new system.

While he’d done a jump before, it’d been a quick one, from Myrkyma to Mars Primus, and he’d been partially sedated thanks to his minor panic attack upon seeing the sky for the first time in his life. It’d been weeks on Mars Primus before he really got used to seeing clouds, the expansive blue sky of everything and nothing beyond them, and almost to the end of ACS before he’d come to love it all. Now? He yearned to see every sunrise and sunset.

Tavi knew he would see thousands more of each, but never would he grow tired of them.

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